Academy Award winning director William Friedkin (The French Connection, 1971) and Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Tracy Letts (August: Osage County) take a trip into a Texas trailer park underworld in Killer Joe, arriving on Blu-ray Disc, DVD, On Demand and Pay-Per-View on Friday, December 21 from Lionsgate Home Entertainment. Killer Joe will also be available on EST December 14, one week prior to the Blu-ray, DVD and On Demand release. This twisted and darkly humorous story of Detective “Killer” Joe Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) has electrified audiences with its audacious spirit for deep-fried noir.

Featuring a critically acclaimed performance from McConaughey, Killer Joe’s all-star cast also includes Emile Hirsch (Into The Wild), Juno Temple (The Dark Knight Rises), Gina Gershon (The Insider) and Thomas Hayden Church (Sideways). An official selection of the Venice International Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and Edinburgh International Film Festival, Killer Joe was also aTime Out New York critic’s pick. The film was released theatrically through LD Entertainment.

The Blu-ray Disc will feature the Unrated Director’s Cut of the film, while the DVD will feature an R-rated version. Including a director’s commentary, a behind-the-scenes featurette plus the director intro and cast Q&A from SXSW, the Killer Joe Blu-ray Disc and DVD will be available for the suggested retail price of $24.99 and $19.98, respectively.

Killer Joe Cooper (McConaughey) is a Dallas detective who doubles as a hit man with the charm of a southern gentleman. Chris (Hirsch) hires Joe to kill his mother in order to collect her life insurance and pay off his debts. Unable to pay for the service upfront Joe takes Chris’ sister Dottie (Temple) as a retainer until he can be paid.

That is odd. I'm assuming the Unrated Director's Cut is the Theatrical NC-17 version, and they'll edit it down for an R-rated DVD.

They may be calling the NC-17 version an "Unrated version" because a number of retail stores will not carry an NC-17 film, but strangely, have no problem selling Unrated movies despite them being basically the same thing.

They may be calling the NC-17 version an "Unrated version" because a number of retail stores will not carry an NC-17 film, but strangely, have no problem selling Unrated movies despite them being basically the same thing.

I watched this for the first time last night, and I'm still not sure what to think about it. I expected more from William Friedkin. McConaughey's performance saved the film, in my opinion. I didn't really see the point of the NC-17 rating though.

Same thing was done with Requiem for a Dream when it came out. Was unrated in theaters and when it came to dvd they had an R rated dvd that went to places like Blockbuster and such. Then there was the seperate Unrated version which was the theatrical version.